Abstract
The impacts of colonization on the physical, economic, cultural, social, and psychological well-being of Aboriginal people are well documented, and include significant disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. This chapter focuses on debriefs – reflective and reflexive group discussions – as a novel approach to monitoring and enhancing the practice of community based participatory research (CBPR) throughout the Métis Settlements Life Skills Journey (MSLSJ) project. Debriefs allow research team members, including community participants, to share problems, issues, and concerns on a regular basis, exploring the gap between the theoretical and practical in CBPR. This MSLSJ project, presented as a case study, has strong parallels with the principles of good practice in community development. We present the outcomes of relational accountability, reciprocal capacity building, and maintaining healthy boundaries as evidence of these principles in action. Further, we discuss managing responsibility and shared understanding as two overarching themes.
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Fletcher et al. (2013a, p. 140) state that “contrary to the normative Elder role in First Nations, Elder authority is not formalised at BLMS. At BLMS, elder is a respected senior – it does not denote the proper noun, ‘Elder’, as is used in First Nations communities.”
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Fletcher, F., Hibbert, A., Hammer, B. (2017). Debriefs as Process Evaluation for Community Well-Being: Community-based Participatory Research with Métis Settlements in Alberta, Canada. In: Phillips, R., Wong, C. (eds) Handbook of Community Well-Being Research. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0878-2_6
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